In The Name of the Father
by The Bloody Countess
Summary: A short fic. I posted this on the 30 kisses LJ community around September. Hope you like this one. This was in answer to one of the numerous themes of 30 kisses.


x-posted in **30kisses  
****Author/Artist:** **defyingtheodds** (that's my LJ name. Add me if you want.)  
**Pairing:** Adrian Alucard Tepes and Maria Renard**  
Fandom:** Castlevania  
**Theme:** #29, the sound of waves for **30kisses**  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own Castlevania or the characters. Konami owns them all, lucky bastards. TT  
**Additional Notes:** Any attempts to plagiarize will result in something extremely painful. Please do not test me, I'm not very nice when someone copies my work.

* * *

Does a shoreline ever forget the waves that meet it?

Does the sky ever forget the sun when it goes down?

Adrian Alucard Tepes may have lived six hundred years before her, but not once did he forget his immortal father.

Maria Renard, sister-in-law of the famous vampire hunter, Richter Belmont knew in her heart that the man she fell in love with amidst the ruins of Castelvania would never be rid of Dracula, no matter how hard he tried.

Their battle as father and son would last into eternity, both cursed to witness the rise and fall of civilizations and of man; one struggling to hang on to life for his redemption and the other to rule over Chaos.

_I am a heretic, Miss Renard. 'Twas a misfortune that my father had to be the father of the damned..._

These bitter words echoed in her mind as she watched him brood over the firelight just a few steps away from her. As the flames leapt and danced before him, his eyes turned from a relaxed amber to sharp gold and the young features he possessed hardened, his lips thinning out into a grim line.

"You are thinking about your father again, Adrian." (For he had so asked that she call him by his human name).

Slowly, he turned to her, his pale hair dramatically falling over his shoulders and onto his back and he nodded slowly. "I am afraid, Miss Renard, that someday I shall no longer be able to contain this bloodlust in me," he replied. "I am, after all, part-vampire..."

Maria shook her head. "You are also part-human, Adrian. And it is that part of you that makes the choice to fight."

A small smile ghosted his lips briefly before he fixed his intense gaze on the fire once more. "If you stay with me, Miss Renard, we will forever be fleeing from Dracula's minions. And as long as there be another ritual to resurrect Dracula, Castlevania will rise again. I cannot protect you forever."

She understood. It was difficult. This endless running away from a fear that they had fought not but a few years back. Adrian had been less afraid then, but it pained him still to destroy Dracula, even though he constantly battled with him every three hundred years.

This time was different, he had told her. He had more reason to protect her now.

"You fear for the child, do you not?"

He nodded and cast a sad glance at her abdomen. Already he could smell the life forming inside her and although her belly was flat now, Adrian knew that in a few months it would swell out with the growth of her child.

Their child.

"It is difficult for me to deal with these feelings, Miss Renard," he answered softly, reaching out to brush back a stray tendril of golden hair from her face. "The only woman I ever loved before you was my mother, and even she I could not protect."

"You were very young when you lost her, Adrian," Maria gently reasoned, placing her hands over his. "But even now you have not completely lost her. She lives in your heart the way my parents live in mine..."

Adrian sighed. "You are a very stubborn woman, Maria..."

"No, Adrian. I'm just in love."

In that moment, the heretic vampire prince known as Alucard Adrian Tepes, son of Count Vlad Tepes Dracula, pledged to live on and fight. He pledged for Maria Renard, daughter of the Renard Clan and their unborn child. He pledged for Lisa Tepes, his mother who was burned at the stake for protecting an innocent vampire-child. He pledged for the brave souls who had gone before him to resist Dracula's evil.

Above all, he pledged for his soul.

That night, Maria Renard slept in his arms, listening to his shallow breathing that sounded like ocean waves.

_Does a shoreline ever forget the waves that meet it?_

_Does the sky ever forget the sun when it goes down?_

_Adrian Alucard Tepes knew nothing of this, but he knew in his heart that he would never forget his human mother who gave up her life to protect him against the dark lord who had sired him._


End file.
